This invention relates generally to apparatus for storing and dispensing and/or displaying the uppermost one of a plurality of stacked articles. More particularly, the present invention relates to apparatus for storing and dispensing stacked articles wherein upon removal of the uppermost articles of the stack, the stack is indexed upwardly to dispense or display the new uppermost article.
Apparatus are known for storing and dispensing stacked articles in such position that the uppermost article of the stack is presented for display or dispensing at a predetermined convenient height while those articles below it are held in position ready to be fed automatically upwardly upon removal of the uppermost article. whereby the next article beneath it comes automatically into position at that predetermined height.
Conventional apparatus of this type are not entirely satisfactory in all applications. Conventional apparatus for storing and dispensing stacked articles are generally constructed with mechanisms for elevating a platform or pallet on which the stack of articles is supported. Such mechanisms are rather complicated in construction, variously requiring sprocket chain arrangements, counterbalancing weight arrangements, complicated compression spring configurations and the like. The elevating or lifting mechanisms generally are housed in casings or frames which require that the apparatus including the elevator platform, lifting mechanism and frame be manufactured and supplied as an integrated unit. In applications where the supporting platform or pallet supports a plurality of stacked articles, wherein each article itself includes a plurality of laterally adjacent units, for example where each article comprises a case of laterally adjacent bottles, uneven removal of one or more of the units from the uppermost article may result in tilting or cocking of the platform.